Method of and means for inserting fastenings



N. C. POLLARD METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR INSERTING FASTENINGS May 9, 1939.

Filed April 6, 1937 Patented May 9, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR INSERTING FASTENINGS Application April 6, 1937, Serial No. 135,281

11 Claims.

This invention relates to the insertion of fastenings in connection, for example, with the attachment of heels to shoes. An object of the invention is to effect the insertion rapidly, in a manner calling for few acts on the part of the operator and which will result in securely joining the objects to be attached.

In the attainment of this object, a feature of the invention involves a method of operation whereby a tubular fastening is placed about such a tool as a drill, the tool rotated to produce an opening in the work, and pressure applied to the fastening to force it along the opening. Because such a tubular fastening may be of considerable diameter, it will contact with a relatively large area of the heel-material, and its periphery may lie well out toward the edge of the heel-cup. This tends to give secure attachment and a tight joint at the crease. By producing an opening and inserting the fastening in the opening simultaneously, the operation is efficient both as to the time required and the effort expended by the operator. To increase the security of attachment, a fastening may be used which has an external thread. This thread, as the fastening is inserted, will engage the wall of the drilled opening and be retained thereby. To hold the fastening against withdrawal, as through the heel-seatmaterial of the shoe to which a heel is to be attached, the fastening is headed, and the periphery of the head is preferably upset by the application of the driving force, entering the heelseat or other material beyond the remainder of the head to insure a smooth edge.

As another feature of the invention, I provide a machine with the aid of which my improved method may be performed. With awork-support, a drill and a fastening-driver co-operate, there being means for rotating the drill and means arranged to reciprocate the drill and driver together. The drill thus produces the opening in the work, and at the same time the fastening is inserted by the driver in the opening as it is formed. The driver is tubular, and in the driver-passage the drill rotates with its point projecting beyond the driver, both tools reciproeating in a passage in the work-support. An upsetting of the peripheral portion of the fasten- 50 ing-head may result from a depression about the opening in the fastening-engaging end of the driver.

A particular embodiment of the machine of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 shows said machine in side elevation, with parts broken away;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional detail, especially illustrating the depression in the end of the driver;

Fig. 3, a broken perspective View of a fastening which may be employed in carrying out the method, while in Fig. 4 appears a portion of a shoe to which a heel has been attached in accordance with the present method.

As appears in Fig. 1 of the drawing, the machine of this invention has a frame In, which may be secured to a bench. Upon the frame, a work-supporting jack II is separably mounted, so it may be changed for others best adapted for use with shoes of different sizes and styles. Extending vertically through the jack is a passage !2, so located as to register with the point at which a heel-attaching fastening F is to be inserted in a jacked shoe S and its applied heel H. The diameter of the passage I2 is such that it will freely receive the head 1 of the fastening. To retain the work in place for the operations upon it, a pressure-head I3 is arranged to slide vertically in an over-hanging portion of the machine-frame, being raised or lowered to release or engage the heel H by a rotatable cam I4 turned by a hand-lever l5 under the control of the operator.

Journaled in the frame in vertical alinement with the passage I2 of the jack is a shaft l6 rotated as by a pulley l8 joined through a belt 20 to a source of power. The upper extremity of the shaft at 22 furnishes a chuck in which a drill 24 is clamped by screws 26. The drill extends into the jack-passage and is movable longitudinally therein to cause it to penetrate the supported work. To produce this movement, the shaft l6 with the chuck 22 is arranged to reciprocate vertically through its bearing in the frame. At 28 the shaft is reduced to receive a sleeve 3!! provided with spaced flanges. The upper end of the sleeve abuts against an antifriction-bearing 32 surrounding the shaft and is retained in place at its lower extremity by nuts 34. Between the flanges of the sleeve extends a forked portion 35 of one arm of a lever 38 fulcrumed upon the frame. Connected to the opposite arm of the lever is a rod 40, which may be joined to an unillustrated treadle pivotally mounted on the floor beneath the bench. A spring 42 holds the treadle-rod normally raised and the shaft l6 and drill 24 lowered. The upward movement of the drill upon depression of the treadle is sufficient to cause said drill to travel above the top of the jack H and form an opening in the supported work.

Surrounding the drill is a tubular fasteningdriver 44, which has an enlargement 46 stepped upon an antifriction-bearing 48 carried by the drill-chuck to rise and fall therewith. The upper end of the driver terminates far enough below the entering point of the drill to leave a space in which a fastening F may lie with its head resting upon the driver and its upper extremity sufiiciently removed from the point of the drill to permit said drill to bore into the work. About the opening of the driver-passage from which the drill-point projects is shown a depression 50 (Fig. 2). This causes the maximum driving pressure to be applied about the periphery of the fastening-head f in a manner such that this portion will be upset, being forced into the work at 9 (Fig. 4) in advance of the remainder of the head and insuring a surface free from abrupt projections.

A fastening F suitable for use in connection with this invention is best shown in Fig. 3 of the drawing. It has a tubular barrel :1, at one end of which is a head I and at the opposite extremity a reduced entering edge 11-. This edge is preferably formed by an internal beveled surface c, but it is shown as rendered less abrupt and not as liable to be distorted in driving by a more obtuse, external, beveled surface d. This bevel d produces some inwardly directed force as it is pressed against the material which it penetrates, and this prevents undue expansion of the fastening-barrel resulting from the outward force caused by the surface 0. The peripheral portion of the head 1 may be of less thickness than the remainder to facilitate the upsetting action of the driver 44. Extending about the exterior of the barrel between the head and the entering edge I) are helical projections or threads 6, shown as two in number. These may resemble the threads of a driving screw, being of relatively steep pitch.

In performing the method of my invention with the illustrated machine, the drill 24 may be maintained in rotation and is initially lowered, as appears in Fig. l in full lines. A fastening F is applied about the drill-end, manually or by an automatic feeder, it being held in the correct relation to the drill-point by the head resting upon the driver 44. A shoe S is placed upon the jack H, a heel H positioned upon its heelseat, and the head l3 lowered by the handle 15 to clamp the work securely. The rod 40 is thereupon drawn down by the operator, causing the shaft l6 to be elevated and, with it, the drill and the driver. The projecting end of the drill enters and forms an opening in the heel-seat of the shoe and then in the heel. When the end of the fastening under the influence of the driver reaches the work, its edge I) and the threads 6 penetrate the wall of the drilled passage, which the fastening follows without encountering great resistance and without tendency to split the heel. On account of the capacity of the driver to turn freely independently of the rotation of the drill, the fastening may rotate at a rate dependent upon the pitch of the threads e, this not being interfered with by the more rapidly rotating drill. The head of the fastening, at the termination of the upward stroke of the drill and driver, reaches the heel-seat-material, and the final pressure upon the periphery of the head upsets this at 9 into the insole of the shoe. The

attachment of the heel is thus completed, as appears in Fig. 4 of the drawing, it being securely held by the engagement of the fastening-barrel and its threads with the wall of the drilled opening. Release of the rod 40 and elevation of the hand-lever I5 permits the removal of the work from the jack. It will be seen that the preparati'on of the shoe and heel for the insertion of the fastening, together with such insertion, are the result of a single act on the part of the operator, and that the fastening is accurately located with respect to the drilled opening without the provision of means for accomplishing this, other than the drill itself.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The method of inserting tubular fastenings which consists in placing a fastening about a drill, rotating the drill to produce an opening in the work, and applying pressure to the fastening to force it along the opening.

2. The method of inserting tubular fastenings provided with external threads which consists in drilling through the passage in a fastening into the work, and forcing the fastening into the drill opening with the thread engaging the wall of said opening.

3. The method of inserting headed threaded tubular fastenings which consists in drilling through the passage in a fastening into the work, and forcing the fastening into the drilled open.- ing with the thread engaging the wall thereof and upsetting the periphery of the head to enter the work beyond the remainder of said head.

4. The method of attaching heels to shoes which consists in applying a heel to the heelseat of a shoe, associating a fastening with a tool, forming an opening in the heel-seat of the shoe and in the heel by the tool in advance of the fastening, and during the formation of the opening inserting the fastening in said opening to secure the heel to the shoe.

5. The method of attaching heels to shoes by tubular fastenings which consists in applying a heel to the heel-seat of a shoe, surrounding a drill with a fastening, drilling through the heelseat of the shoe into the heel, and advancing the fastening with the drill into the heel-seat an heel. I i i 6. The method of attaching heels to shoes by headed tubular fastenings which consists in applying a heel to the heel-seat of a shoe, surrounding a drill with a fastening, drilling through the heel-seat of the shoe into the heel, and advancing the fastening with the drill intothe heel-seat and heel by pressure applied to the fasteninghead outside of the drill.

7. The method of attaching heels to shoes by headed tubular fastenings which consists in applying a heel to the heel-seat of a shoe, surrounding a drill with a fastening, drilling through the heel-seat of the shoe into the heel, advancing the fastening with the drill into the heel-seat and heel by pressure applied to the fastening-head outside of the drill, and upsetting the periphery of the fastening-head in the heelseat.

8. In a fastening-inserting machine, a worksupport provided with a passage, a tubular fastening-driver arranged to reciprocate in the passage, a drill rotatable Within and projecting at its point beyond the driver, the projecting end of the drill beingarranged to receive about it and extend beyond a tubular fastening engaged by the end of the driver, and means arranged to reciprocate the drill and driver together along the passage.

9. In a fastening-inserting machine, a worksupport provided with a passage, a tubular fastening-driver arranged to reciprocate in the passage and having a depression about the opening in the fastening-engaging end, a drill rotatable Within and projecting at its point beyond the driver, and means arranged to reciprocate the drill and driver together along the passage.

10. In a heel-attaching machine, a frame, a shoe-supporting jack carried by the frame and provided with a passage extending to that surface of the jack which receives contact of the heel-seat of a jacked shoe, a drill-chuck rotatable upon the frame and adapted to receive a drill, a tubular fastening-driver coaxial with said drill-chuck and positioned within said passage, said driver extending outwardly from the chuck and terminating in said passage at a point inwardly from the point normally occupied by the outer end of the drill, and means for reciprocating said chuck and driver as a unit.

11. In a fastening-inserting machine, a worksupport, a drill and a fastening-driver co-operating with the support with the drill extending beyond the driver, said driver being free to rotate independently of the drill, means for rotating the drill, and means arranged to reciprocate the drill and driver together.

NEDD C. POLLARD. 

